FeedDaily Illini declares war on bloggers
February 18, 2006 in Overset Tags: blogging, cartoon protests, Daily Illini, illini media
Stick a fork in the Daily Illini. It’s dead. It’s corpse is just walking around headless, waiting to die. And good riddance. It’s existence can no longer be justified on the grounds that it performs a legitimate journalistic function. They abandoned the concept that a newspaper is supposed to provide information about the world. Instead, they suspected two editors who made a brave decision to show the campus community exactly what it was that Muslims all around the world are protesting, sometimes violently.
Now, they have abandoned all pretense of transparency. They have have issued new rules that seriously restrict the free speech rights of any employee Illini Media:
The rules are:
Illini Media policy on personal blogs and Web sites:
- – No Illini Media resources may be used in creating, updating or editing personal blogs or Web sites.
- – Illini Media employees may not create, edit or update personal blogs or Web sites during the course of their work day, work shift or work assignment.
- – Content of personal blogs or Web sites must not be based upon internal conversations, discussions and/or decisions.
- – An employee’s affiliation with Illini Media or any of its units should not be the focus of his or her personal blog or Web site.
- – Employees may not post material on personal blogs or Web sites intended for publication/broadcast or material that has been previously published/broadcast.
- – Any employee violating this policy is subject to immediate termination of employment with the company.
As I’ve written before, it’s unwise to blog about work. It’s unwise because there can be legitimate reasons why a call center, for example, might not want its clients corporate procedures discussed on the Web.
But what newspaper needs to keep secrets? Transparency is what modern readers want and increasingly demand. They want to know how the sausage is being made before they consume it. If there’s a debate over how to cover an issue, air the debate. Give the readers as much information as they need to know.
That’s why so many media organizations are putting blogs on their Websites. Some are even hiring outside bloggers. Eric Zorn, the Chicago Tribune’s fine columnist often discusses why stories appear and don’t appear.
But the Daily Illini found itself at the center of controversy — as well it should — after it suspended the editors involved in printing the cartoons. Some of the criticism came vis the Web and blogs like mine.
The response was this crackdown. Pity poor Kiyoshi Martinez, who had to decide to make one last post about the Daily Illini and then quit blogging about it:
Despite my feelings on this policy, I have chosen to abide by it for the good of the company. I am making the choice to stay with The Daily Illini because I believe I can do more good with the company by doing community outreach than I can posting entries on this blog. I considered all options, and ultimately I remain loyal to the company and its policies, and I will respect them.
And my advice to Kiyoshi: Do not put your fit in princes. Likewise, do not put your faith in newspaper publishers. They will break your heart. They will use your loyalty and commitment to the ideals of your profession, and then throw you out on your ass if they thought it meant the difference between buying a new car this year or next, or between sending their kids to a private school or a really, really expensive private school.
Were I not somewhat familiar with the creature known as a “newspaper publisher,” I would be shocked and surprised that a company that owes its existence to a 1st Amendment would force its own staffers to not exercise those rights or face unemployment. And also am not surprised that academics are motivated more by fear than by higher principle.
But I am struck by how utterly clueless the people who run Illini Media really are. Do they not understand that the Internet is not going to go away? Do that not understand how the Internet works? Anyone, I mean anyone, can post anonymously. Even these staffers they’ve threatened.
I don’t understand how anyone who thinks the media works like it did 20 years ago can be allowed to teach people how to be journalists in the 21st century.
NOTE: I’m being Zornalanched. Thanks for the link, Eric. Oddly enough, I haven’t been blogging much this past week. But my hits are up because most of my blogging has been about this nonsense.
February 18th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Another interesting development that endangers the mainstream media is the rise of news aggregators like News Bump which is more interesting than many big media outlets.
February 19th, 2006 at 6:10 am
But if the MSM is dying like you guys say, who will gather the news so bloggers can comment on it. I don’t see bloggers with few exceptions doing independent reporting
February 19th, 2006 at 10:28 am
Obviously, the newspapers and broadcasters won’t be replaced by bloggers, per se. Some media organizations will evolve. Others will die out and be replaced by entrepreneurs will will realize that there is no value is ownign a printing press or a broadcast license, but in hring a staff of news gatherers.
February 19th, 2006 at 7:26 pm
I’m an alum. Boycott the Daily Illini.
February 19th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
“No Illini Media resources may be used in creating, updating or editing personal blogs or Web sites.”
I’ll bet they have a policy against stealing office supplies, too. Big deal.
“Illini Media employees may not create, edit or update personal blogs or Web sites during the course of their work day, work shift or work assignment.”
In other words, they want people to work, at work? Wow, what an Oliver Twist-like office environment. Big deal.
“Content of personal blogs or Web sites must not be based upon internal conversations, discussions and/or decisions.”
They don’t want people airing their dirty laundry about work or otherwise making “office talk” public? Big deal.
“An employee’s affiliation with Illini Media or any of its units should not be the focus of his or her personal blog or Web site.”
So they don’t want people to use their job to “get themselves over” at the company’s expense? Big deal.
“Employees may not post material on personal blogs or Web sites intended for publication/broadcast or material that has been previously published/broadcast.”
Sounds like the observance of basic copyright law to me. Big deal.
“Any employee violating this policy is subject to immediate termination of employment with the company.”
WARMONGERS!
February 19th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Imagine that — a US newspaper opposed to freedom of speech! Publisher Mary Cory is First Mate on a cruise around the Clueless Islands.
February 20th, 2006 at 1:11 am
This has gone way too far. I could see asking your employees not to comment on internal matters of policy, but for instance, once something is published the DI should allow and encourage these materials being included on blogs to boost the number of readers of the DI online. This is just silly.
February 20th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Did you read the snarky letter penned by one Kristofer Biskeborn? For a second I thought he was serious. I wonder if the DI printed it because they thought he was, too.
February 20th, 2006 at 2:19 am
One, the DI is free, with a predominently non-blog reading population, so how does one boycott it if one is not an advertiser?
Two, blogging at work or about work is a bad idea. I support what Kiyoshi did, and appreciate the information he was able to put out about the publishing of the cartoons, but the instant I saw the posts on his blog I knew he’d pay some sort of consequences for it.
Lastly, the DI changes with every new group of people who staff it. It’s a student newspaper. Declaring it dead now is kinda stupid when it’ll be different people running it. Will its overal journalistic reputation be damaged? Of course, but how many students on campus actually pay attention to that?
March 5th, 2006 at 10:02 am
Oh please. When I was there, staffers also weren’t allowed to make personal long-distance phone calls. Was that restricting their free speech rights too?
Of course it makes sense that newspapers can (and should) leverage the Internet and blogging as tools for providing more transparency to readers. But do you honestly think Eric Zorn can blog about anything he happens to see or hear in the newsroom? Do you think newspapers who hire outside bloggers just say, “hey, post whatever you want,” and then hope for the best? Of course not. They operate under guidelines set by the people signing their paycheck.
Are staffers at The Daily Illini still going to blog about their work, possibly anonymously? Of course! Staffers are also still going to make those personal long-distance phone calls, are still going to use the company car to run errands, and are still going to use company computers to do their homework. But the IMC would be irresponsible as a business not to have formal policies in place to provide them with some tools for recourse when someone on the payroll acts against the interests of the company — that’s theirright. If the IMC wasn’t run responsibly as the business that it is, it wouldn’t have the kind of resources it makes available to students. (I’m sure you’re aware that IMC is self-funding, and that it’s not run or paid for by the University.)
Newspapers absolutely have an obligation to share with their readers how the sausage is made. But they should so in a formal, identifiable way that provides readers with clear avenues of response, and staff members with a reasonable understanding of what parts of their working day are “bloggable.”
Perhaps the new policy is overreaching. But the IMC I know has always eventually evolved in ways that best serve all the students it employs. As more and more staffers come into the newsroom with an established presence in the blogosphere, they’ll have to figure out how to accommodate that in a way that makes sense not just for the individual blogger, but for the rest of the staff, the rest of the company, and the readers and community they all serve. If you’d like to share your opinion on how they should do that, I recommend writing a letter to the editor.
Andrew Savikas
Daily Illini Editor in Chief, 2000-2001